Leaving the forest with a calm yet anything-but-discreet gait, Hui Lang walked toward the great city.
An enormous wall of crude stone surrounded it, giving it a medieval, almost mortal atmosphere. There was no energy dome protecting it, as one might expect, which made it seem even more ordinary.
The city was not arranged on a mountain or anything similar, but rather spread across a flat plain like a mortal city—though clearly far more majestic.
Tall buildings and huge, imposing mansions rose everywhere. Yet despite all that grandeur, it did not feel as majestic or mystical as one would expect of a cultivation city.
Hui Lang calmly took in that strangely ordinary sight, harboring his doubts deep within his heart without ever breaking his stride.
At a certain moment, a shadow suddenly passed over him. Raising his eyes, he saw a group of people flying above, composed of some cultivators at the Nascent Soul realm and below.
Those cultivators looked ragged, with some visible cuts on their clothes and bodies, and their auras were quite weak, as if they had just faced an intense battle, and perhaps even fled from it.
Looking back, Hui Lang saw only the tranquil forest from which those cultivators had flown out, and there was no trace of a beast chasing them, so he judged that either the beast did not follow them, or they had eliminated it or shaken it off.
Not worrying any further, he shrugged and continued toward what should be the city gates, marked by a large and imposing red wooden portal, where some guards were stationed, guiding a long line ahead.
Blinking thoughtfully, Hui Lang moved forward and headed to the end of that long line, ready to queue up, while observing the group of men and women—some old, others young, and a few children as well—all with cultivations that varied greatly, but without exception, they waited patiently in line.
And they, upon sensing an aura approaching, turned unconsciously to see who was arriving, and that was when they saw an elderly man with white hair calmly walking in their direction.
Even so, each step of the man seemed to cover a great distance, giving off an extremely mystical feeling.
His white robes, adorned with golden details, fluttered majestically in the wind, their craftsmanship of an exceptionally high quality.
Hui Lang wore a serious expression; his face no longer bore as many wrinkles as in the past, and his tall figure—once small and hunched when he first arrived at the sect—now stood upright like a sword. His shoulders were broad and imposing, restoring the unrestrained bearing he had possessed in his youth.
Moreover, he exuded a sense of detachment and control over everything around him.
His aura, despite not being particularly strong, being only at the Golden Core, still emitted a certain oppression over the crowd, all stemming from the certainty and confidence the man seemed to have in his own power.
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When they saw him arrive, the only words that arose in the minds of the cultivators in line were: a great and powerful expert has just arrived.
They would never imagine that, just over two years ago, he was merely a toothless old man, on the brink of death, ninety-nine years old, who only dreamed of seeing the gates of the Foundation Establishment realm—something that everyone, including himself, believed to be impossible.
But all of that changed with Aotian's arrival in this world. Everything changed with the emergence of the Infinite Dao Sect.
Now, beneath Hui Lang's renewed, confident, and heroic appearance, a peculiar scene ended up unfolding in the city's entrance line, causing him to calmly raise an eyebrow.
In front of him, the cultivators bowed respectfully and hurriedly stepped aside, opening a clear passage in his path.
Gently stroking his long white beard, he quickly analyzed and understood the situation. After all, it was not the first time he had encountered something like this.
On the Beixu continent, from where he came, when he arrived at certain cultivation cities to carry out sect missions and released his aura, the local cultivators reacted in exactly the same way.
Even so, something left him confused.
'I am only a Golden Core. Why are they treating me like this here, where I sense several auras stronger than mine?'
Despite his confusion, his eyes gleamed faintly, amused.
Then, shamelessly, without explaining the misunderstanding, he moved forward, overtaking the many people who bowed before him.
The truth he did not yet know was that his aura, being only at the Golden Core, made no one look down on him, because that was a completely common scene for the inhabitants of that small world.
They were accustomed to seeing cultivators pretend to possess weak realms to lure careless fools into attacking them, which would then nullify the world's protection over the aggressor, allowing someone of a higher realm to kill a weaker one.
That was a world where pretending to be a pig to devour the tiger was taken extremely seriously.
And if one could not trust an aura, all that remained was to judge by the atmosphere surrounding a cultivator, and Hui Lang's screamed of a strong man who had been through many things, especially with his aged and heroic appearance.
Hui Lang, amused but maintaining a serious expression, continued walking confidently forward.
The people further ahead in the line, sensing the intense movement of the crowd behind them, also turned around. Upon seeing others running to the sides and bowing for an imposing old man to pass, they turned pale. Without wasting time, they immediately imitated the behavior.
They did not even probe the situation. After all, the human herd mentality still existed among cultivators, and upon seeing so many people respectfully opening a path for an elderly man, they did not think twice before doing the same, readily believing that a powerful cultivator had arrived.
Thus, Hui Lang continued walking calmly and unobstructed along the path opened before him, until he reached the guards, who also turned pale and bowed, not daring to block him, which made Hui Lang seriously doubt their qualifications.
'Well, they should be more serious in their duty. But who am I to judge them,' Hui Lang thought, amused, as he saw the respectful guards.
However, when he was about to enter the city, he suddenly stopped beside the guards, making them freeze in fear, frantically imagining whether they had provoked the hostility of that expert.
Hui Lang then turned his face toward a guard to his right, displaying a small smile.
"To enter the city, two medium-grade stones are required, correct?" his hoarse yet gentle voice sounded in a calm tone, surprising everyone, after all, no one had expected such a question.
"T-This… your excellency, you don't need to worry about that. Our gate guards will bear these irrelevant costs so as not to displease your excellency!" the guard, though trembling, replied with all his strength, not daring to lie, bowing even deeper.
Hui Lang's mouth twitched slightly as he sensed the guard's terror, and the man even went so far as to admit that he and his colleagues intended to bear the costs themselves, all to avoid offending a powerful cultivator, which was understandable.
But the worst part was that he had not even done anything to frighten them like this. He had merely walked calmly, which left him completely perplexed.
Gently shaking his head—a gesture that gave the surrounding guards a huge scare, making them tremble even more—he waved his hand and tossed two medium-grade stones to them.
"You don't need to bear anything. I don't lack spirit stones," he replied calmly.
After paying the same amount he had seen others pay earlier, he prepared to enter the city in peace, accompanied by the guards' respectful thanks.
But it was at that exact moment that a voice interrupted him, frightening the crowd once again.
"Hey, you there! I order you to stop immediately!" an arrogant and irritating voice rang out, breaking the tense atmosphere around them.
Everyone who heard the voice, including the guards, widened their eyes and immediately moved away from Hui Lang and the young man who had spoken, trembling as they avoided getting involved in the consequences of what was about to come.
The one who had arrived was a young man in purple robes, with light cuts on his clothes, dusty and seemingly quite tired. Even so, at that moment, he cast a mocking and irritated look at the old man, who, in contrast, looked at him calmly, raising only an eyebrow, without any other reaction.
This calm reaction destabilized the boy's confidence somewhat, and some cultivators at his side, apparently subordinates, turned slightly pale, looking at Hui Lang with suspicion and fear.
"Were you talking to me?" Hui Lang asked calmly, a small smile playing on his lips as he recognized the aura of the young man—possibly a young master—and those around him.
They were, in fact, the cultivators who had flown over his head earlier, when he was heading here, and it seemed they had not yet fully entered the city, since they interrupted him at the gate like this.
"O-Of course it was you!" the young man stammered, taking a deep breath to steady himself.
He had seen Hui Lang earlier and did not think he was anything special, and the speed of his walk, though quite fast, did not seem exceptional at all. Because of that, he suspected he was merely a fraud and decided to put him in his proper place simply out of spite and impulsiveness.
"And who are you?" Hui Lang asked gently, genuinely curious, softly stroking his beard, not taking the boy very seriously.
As long as he did not attack anyone he was not sure he could defeat, he would be practically invincible under the restrictions of that world. So why fear?
"You really don't know or are you pretending to be a fool? I am the young master of the Lung clan, Lung Sheng. My father is the clan master, Lung Jun, my grandfather is the second ancestor, Lung Tian, and my great-grandfather is the great ancestor, Lung Wei." He placed his hands behind his back and raised his chin haughtily, fully recovering his courage as he spoke of his origins. "Do you know who you're talking to now?" Lung Sheng questioned, smiling with scorn.
Hui Lang nodded heavily, with a serious look, and asked solemnly,
"Do you also intend to introduce me to your mother's genealogy?"
"..." Lung Sheng.
"..." Everyone.
His words, seemingly serious but clearly mocking, caused astonishment in the crowd. Many turned pale, while others struggled desperately to control themselves and not laugh.
Lung Sheng also noticed this, and his face first turned pale, then red with shame, and then black with rage.
"You dare!!!"
Shouting furiously, he clenched his fists and, unable to control himself, lunged forward in an attack, catching everyone by surprise.
As a young master, he had never been treated like this before, and his blood rushed to his head, leading him to commit one of his family's taboos—or rather, of the entire small world: never attack someone of unknown strength.
"Young master, no!!" His servants, snapping out of their shock, widened their eyes in despair as they saw their young master attack suddenly, unable to stop him in time.
On the other hand, Hui Lang merely raised an eyebrow as he saw the boy's furious attack approaching.
The strike seemed powerful, emitting the aura of a Nascent-Tier spell, but there was no elemental energy nor any defined form, only energy accumulated in great quantity in that fist, crude and simple, which in truth… was weak.
Hui Lang observed calmly, curious, and when the fist was about to touch him, he felt slight ripples envelop his body, as if something were about to defend him, a sensation he had already tested against a fourth-level beast, when he let it attack him.
That was the defense of the small world's formations, protecting a cultivator of a lower realm against the attack of someone of a higher realm.
But this time he did not need it, as he had already evaluated the boy's strength. So, with energy rippling around him, a claw of the water element emerged in his hand. He closed it into a fist and casually swung it toward the boy, who widened his eyes.
"Deep Sea King's Claws—!!"
He didn't even have time to shout the full name of the Nascent-tier spell, which was far faster than his crude attack, before the energy fist slammed directly into his face, sending him flying out of the city. He tumbled for a long distance, kicking up a trail of dust, disappearing from sight.
Hui Lang, who had barely moved his arm from start to finish, blinked lightly, confused, feeling strange at the ease of the fight.
As for the people around, who watched everything from beginning to end, the scene was simply astonishing.
"T-That man… he is a dragon seed!"
"D-Dragon Seed! It's been a long time since I've seen a legendary spell used."
The crowd murmured in disbelief, looking at Hui Lang with a mixture of fear, awe, admiration, longing, and envy.
The guards around were the same, but they carried an even greater concern, for they knew more than ordinary cultivators.
"Could he be an envoy from Dragon Peak?!"
"It's possible! Quickly, we must inform the city lord immediately, we have a guest we cannot offend!"
Meanwhile, Hui Lang, who was the center of everything that was happening, felt only a huge question mark grow larger and larger above his head as he listened to the conversations and whispers of the crowd, which seemed to make less and less sense to him.